Monday, July 17, 2006

Obesity & asthma

July 13, 2006 -- A lung-irritating protein made by fat cells may be the missing link between obesity and asthma, say Australian researchers.

Obesity makes it about three times more likely a person will have asthma. And when obese people with asthma lose weight, their asthma gets better, says Michael Rolph, PhD, one of the researchers on the study.

The article goes on to say that there's a protein made by fat cells that causes inflammation of the lungs which then worsens asthma. This is very interesting because if this protein can really be isolated, then more treatment options may be coming along for those with asthma.

I'm seeing more and more kids overweight and more and more kids having diseases like asthma and diabetes and others. There are many scattered theories on the origins of the obesity epidemic, but unfortunately, there is not united agreement on a solution to this problem.

yeah, definitely it is just ONE of many other contributors to asthma. my brother is tall and skinny as a rail and has it; I have some asthma symptoms sometimes, and I am not "skinny" but weigh 120 t0 125, at 5'5''. I also heard children who grow up in TOO clean homes have higher risk of asthma. (probably because their systems to not learn how to adapt to the allergens, etc. in the environment). I have a brother who is a little bit overweight, and he does not have asthma. But that is just a very small sample, of course. But hopefully no one will take that new information to the extreme when it doesn't apply, in their case!